The Honolulu Police Department does not have a policy that spells out how many officers should be present at a traffic stop, nor is there one right answer to the question of whether a motorist should pull over to the right or left when being stopped by an officer.

Maj. Kurt Kendro, commander of HPD’s Traffic Division, addressed department policies in the wake of the death of officer Eric Fontes, who was killed the night of Sept. 13 during a traffic stop on Farrington Highway near the Ko Olina golf course.

Fontes, 45, was killed when he was struck by a pickup truck as he was standing along the left shoulder of the highway. Fontes and three other HPD officers stopped to assist officer Herman "Sam" Scanlan, who had pulled over a Jeep Cherokee with an expired vehicle registration decal on Farrington Highway westbound just before the Ko Olina offramp at 10:30 p.m., police said. Scanlan was injured when the pickup collided with a police patrol car, which then hit him. Three other officers at the scene managed to jump out of the way. The driver of the pickup was not injured, nor were the driver of the Jeep nor any of his three passengers.

HPD has been criticized for allowing the initial stop to occur on the left shoulder of the road, and questioned about why there were five officers responding to a traffic violation that did not appear to present a volatile situation.

Kendro said he could not speak of the specifics of the incident that killed Fontes because it involves an active criminal investigation.

"It is inappropriate to make any comments at this time," Kendro said in a written response to questions by the Star-Advertiser.

However, "there is no policy that dictates that a traffic stop must be conducted on the right side or the left side of the roadway," Kendro said. While generally speaking, HPD prefers motorists pull over to the right, some motorists move to the left while others "panic and hit their brakes and actually stop in the lane of traffic."

An officer can direct a driver to move to a safer location, he said, but "officers cannot control where the motorist stops until after the traffic stop has been initiated."

Different variables are considered, he said, but ultimately "the safety of both motorist and officer(s) is the primary consideration during a traffic stop."

Kendro advised that when motorists hear or see an emergency vehicle approaching with lights on, sirens blaring or both, they should reduce their speed, identify where the emergency vehicle is coming from and move out of the path of the vehicle by moving toward the edge of the road and stopping.

Kendro disputed the notion that any traffic stop is routine, and stressed that how many officers appear can depend on a number of factors.

"There is no such thing as a routine traffic stop," he said, noting that officers in the United States are killed or assaulted while conducting traffic stops annually. "Each police contact is a dynamic situation, and the number of officers present depends on a variety of factors and is determined by the initial officer, cover officers or the supervisor."

Among the most vocal critics of HPD’s actions has been Panos Prevedouros, a traffic and transportation engineering professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Prevedouros said officers in other jurisdictions use speakerphones to direct motorists to pull to a safer spot. Left-side stops, in general, "should not be allowed (because) it is very hard to safely merge with higher speeds of traffic on the left lane once the traffic stop has been completed," he said.

On highways, freeways and other roads with speed limits of 45 mph or higher, HPD should work with the state Department of Transportation to identify safe stretches with wide shoulders and safe lengths for acceleration and merging, Prevedouros said.

"In general, stops on highways and freeways are tremendously risky," he said. "The officer has to make a call of how important it is to stop the motorist then and there. "If the infraction is for modest offenses such as lack of seat-belt use, or moderate speeding etc., then it is much safer exiting the high-speed highway or using the designated pullout zones."

Fontes was hit while in the grass between the concrete divider and the row of cars stopped during the stop along the left side of the highway.

James Dorsey Mancao of Waianae, the 20-year-old driver of the pickup, was arrested but released pending investigation.